To give you an idea of how ludicrous the Mark Richt-hot seat meme is under scrutiny, check out the opener to the final post in the Orlando Sentinel’s ground breaking series entitled “Coaches on the Hot Seat”:

Today is Part V of a five-part series on college football coaches on the Hot Seat. Part I looked at Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez. Part II looked at Georgia coach Mark Richt, Part II looked at Colorado coach Dan Hawkins. Part IV looked at Washington State coach Paul Wulff. Now on to Part V …

Ralph Friedgen, Maryland…

Let’s see… Rodriguez is coming off of back-to-back losing seasons, Hawkins is 16-33 at Colorado, Wulff’s program has three wins total in his two seasons at WSU and Friedgen’s squad set a school record with ten losses in 2009.

53 responses to “One of these coaches is not like the others.”

Not only will they not admit it, but I bet many of them won’t even give Richt credit. If we win 10+ games this season, the story at the Orlando Sentinel (and probably many other places) will be something about how Grantham saved Richt’s job.

This whole hot seat thing is a canard started by our enemies. They WANT Richt to leave because he has been so successful. They WANT the UGA program to be in disarray for their own reasons (supporters of other teams, etc.) and invented this out of thin air to get the moron element out there behind a dump Richt movement. If Richt left who would UGA get who is as good or better to replace him? Nobody–that’s who.

CMR’s record and what he has done for UGA has been remarkable. I’m behind him all the way. Here’s where the hot seat talk comes from: UGA has won a lot of games under CMR with a couple SEC titles. But in the last few years, his teams haven’t shown up against our rivals. Look at his record against UF. UT has also had our number recently. It also not just losing; but we’re getting blown out of games. It’s ok to lose some games; but not the way we have lateley. What will the UGA fans think if we win all our games and UF blasts us again? IMO that would be bad. UGA should never get blasted by anyone with our talent. I think CMR has made the right moves with the coaching staff. We may not win all our games this year; but I think we’ll be competitive in every one. The emphasis on fundamentals will help a ton. I met CWM at the Florida HS finals a couple years ago; and he was a very nice guy. However, I’m glad we’ve moved on and good luck to him. Our D was the problem IMO.
Looking forward to an exciting year of watching the Dawgs.

so i’ve been following this hot seat lunacy without really commenting about it, but now i’d like to offer something about it based on my day-to-day interactions with people who generally consider themselves fans of college football without necessarily claiming allegiance to any team–unfortunately, i don’t live in a dawg-centric world up here.

first, like almost all of you i gather, i don’t think there is a hot seat. the people who matter at uga know cmr’s accomplishments merit continued support. so that’s that, as far as i’m concerned.

but “narratives” like this (sorry, senator–i can’t even bear to read the “m” word anymore) don’t develop from thin air either. when i talk to people who think of themselves as college football fans (but who really pass as casual observers by our dawg and sec standards) what they know about uga is mostly the widely televised beat-downs we’ve suffered in recent years, especially alabama 08.

as for the actual paid sports reporters who perpetuate the narrative: do they have only as much historical perspective of uga football as these relatively casual college football fans, or are they writing to the audience of these relatively casual college football fans?

The Richt hot seat meme is almost like a form of torture. They stand there every day with a hot lamp in our face and tell us: “Mark Richt is on the hot seat!” and we say “no he isn’t” and then they shock us and ask us again. It’s like they are trying to force us to put Mark Richt on the hot seat by sheer force of will.

I have grown weary of the term “hot seat.”. At the very least it is used too loosely with CMR. Maybe “program watch list” would be more appropriate. He has had one disappointing year and one sub par year. CMR has several years to retool the program. He has more than earned it. But, I’m not pretending that 2 more consecutive 8-5 or worse years and he acutually would be on the “hot seat.”

Perhaps the lack of respect for Dawgs and CMR is a good thing, motivation-wise. We fly under the radar and have plenty of material to post on the bulletin board. Hell, even a stud like AJ isn’t getting much press. Hard for a player or coach to get a big head in this climate of daily derision. I’m believing the Dawgs will be getting payback on the field come September.

Look, it is all fine and nice to try and ignore the facts, but the reality is that UGA has been a very poorly coached team for the last 4 years and many, many fans have grown weary of watching the sloppiness.

CMR gained some good will with the firing of CWM, but what happens if the team comes out against La-Lafayette and it’s 10-3 at half, UGA has had 3-4 false starts, a couple of delay-of-games, has allowed La-La’s kick returner to bring one back to midfield following a UGA score and we have turned the ball over twice?

I am not saying that booing will ensue, but all the goodwill from CWM’s firing will disappear in an instant if it appears that that movehas not alleviated all of the OTHER problems that have become endemic in the program.

CMR is certainly in the warm seat, because UGA fans set the precedent with Jim Donnan that winning all the games we are “supposed to” and losing to our rivals is not acceptable.

It is also not acceptable to have coaches on gameday not know who has taken reps and who has not, nor is it acceptable for the head coach to continuously waste timeouts to review plays that clearly will not be overturned.

I love CMR as a man, and he has been an incredible leader of the program. But, if you are a close follower of UGA, you have your head in the sand if you think that all is well just because CWM is gone.

Just for one second, think of what your opinion on the “hot-seat” talk would be if UGA had not stunned Gtu in the finale last year?

There are rules. He laid off the DC, the LB coach and the directional kicking coach. That gives him a minimum of at least a three year extension on his contract for life because now there is a brand new gestalt when it comes to picking out people to blame so the hot seat stuff is…

or until we are up or down 10-3 at half v. USL and playing them like we play Florida.

It’s not relevant because we did beat them. That’s like asking if we’d be pissed if he had gone 0-12 or 12-0. All this hypothetical crap is what drives the canard in the first place. I don’t wholeheartedly disagree with all of what you said, but what is killing Richt is twofold: our inexplicable lopsided losses in the last 4 years and the fact that in our stronger years the ball didn’t bounce our way with regards to the MNC game.

Charles – you make some good points. CMR is a good coach and he’ll continue to win 10 +/- games per year. But until he brings home that glass football, I certainly can’t say he’s a championship-level coach. UGA has everything a championship program needs (support, conference, recruiting base, etc.), it’s up to the coach to make the most of it. People are talking about the hot seat because there’s a concern CMR may be squandering his opportunities. Penalties, wasted time outs, directional kicks, etc. – those little things add up and a championship coach understands that.

So exactly how did Richt not “make the most of it” in 2002 (compared to, say, Meyer in 2006) and in 2007 (compared to Miles the same year). Because from where I’m sitting, the only difference was luck.

* the willingness of people to start a self serving story, regardless of the facts. In this case the ability to talk about CMR as if he might not be around long term, and the ability to use that in negative recruiting (just saw a link on this blog to a recruit mentioning that very concept)
* the laziness of some in the media (or complicity in the case of the UF student run newspaper the Orlando Sentinel) to go along with such an absolutely absurd story. How about another story on Urban’s flip flopping on his health and commitment to his family? Or are you worried he might take a swing at you next time?

This whole thing is a bit like starting a rumor that Warren Buffet is going to get forced out because he had an off year, and then watching investment banks pump up the story so that they can short the Berkshire stock.

You can only include CMR in a story like this if you are ill-informed, too lazy to do very basic fact checking of others’ stories, or if you have an ulterior motive.

Is CMR perfect? No.
Is he absolutely the best thing to happen to UGA football in 25 years? This early ’90s grad says “you’re dadgum right.”

Time to move on to more pressing topics, like what new uniform design we want to try out this year….

I don’t care how many more 10 win teams we field, Richt has raised the level of play here at UGA from the 90’s, and with that has coming rising expectations. I am not among the people who want Richt gone right now, and I laugh at the idea he’s on a “hot seat,” but I think justifiably, at some point in the near future his inability to beat Florida with even his best teams will come back to bite him.

This year is a terrific example of my feelings. UGA should (regardless of Media know-it-alls) have a better overall team than UF, and we will still go into this game as the underdog. 10 of 11 return on offense, with all 5 starters returning (6, if you think about it!) on offensive line! Compare this to UF losing its defensive coordinator, as well as a good 70% of its defense from last year. There is no way Richt shouldn’t be able to take advantage of this fact. If he doesn’t? I’m not saying fire him this year. Far from it. We could have another Shockley-fiasco, and with our limited depth, it would be even worse this season.

But, everyone must agree that 2-7 versus what has become the division leading team is unacceptable in the long run. Richt needs to begin turning this around. I would have thought 2007 was that year, with the fire and passion the team played. But then, 2008 dashed those hopes. Richt needs to do something about our inability to beat the Saurians, and he needs to do it soon.

I am on record about this already and do not want to be redundant but…….if we keep giving FLA a home field advantage every year what the hell do you expect will happen? It not only messes up the FLA series but every other year UGA has to play an SEC schedule where the Dawgs play 5 SEC away games and only 3 SEC home games. No other team in major college football does that. The only comparable situation that I am aware of was the Bama-Auburn series that for years was played at Legion Field in Birmingham, Bama’s second home field. When Pat Dye came to Auburn he put an end to that nonsense and look what happened–the series flipped with Auburn winning substantially more than half the games with Bama for over the next 25 years through multiple coaches at both schools. UGA would do the same if the selfish alumni who put having fun on a trip to Florida ahead of winning would just get their collective feet off the team’s neck and allow the series to be home and home (or what I advocate which is Jax. Mun. Stadium in even years, GA. Dome in odd years). We could let them have home field advantage when they were an inferior program to UGA but not now. My brother-in-law is a Bama alum (and rabid Bama fan) and he tells me all the time that he and other Bama people cannot believe that UGA allows this situation with FLA to continue. Fans of other SEC teams are laughing at us for how stupid we are. Of course the FLA people pretend its not really an advantage because they want us to keep on making the same mistake. What is really pathetic is some of our own people have fallen for that line of BS and have joined the Gator crowd in advocating keeping our Dawgs at a disadvantage. Shame, shame, shame.

That is the first time that I have heard the Jax/ATL idea being cast about. Brilliant! I, for some reason, am not sold on the home and home sched and this would even things up while still giving those that love a trip to jax what they want. The WLOCP could continue the tradition and still be a special treat the years that it is in Atlanta. Excellent idea, Mayor.

Look at the Red River Shootout. That’s the only comparable game. I believe (but haven’t looked it up) that the Texas-Oklahoma game is about even the last 25 years. It’s at the Cotton Bowl stadium. Texans brag that the biggest event of the year in Oklahoma happens in Texas.

How do you guys, who favor alternating the Florida game site, reconcile that result with ours?

I don’t. They are 2 totally different situations. And if Texas started winning EVERY game how long do you think it would take OU to stop going to Dallas every year? I’ll bet it wouldn’t take 20+ years.

The Orlando Sentinel is on a recruiting agenda for UM, UF, & FSU. The sports writers at the paper have to protect their wages and job. They have a vested interest to take down any coach that they see as a threat to the big 3 in Florida. Programs run in cycles. UGA has not recruited well lately, but that is changing. Also there are huge changes in the works with defense, scheme and player wise. The offense will do better than most think. The rising QB has more ability than last year. Plus this offense suffered until the Florida game. Let’s not jump on some stupid band wagon about the current staff and the HC. At times like this it is time to break out the cat litter and the Sentinel’s sports under the litter.

Mr. Mayor, When AD Dooley polled season ticket holders about moving the Ga./Fla. game, I responded much as you did. When Spurrier took over he told his players; “We are playing the game in the “Gator Bowl” in Jacksonville ,Fla. It is a home game for us and an away game for them. We will win our Home Games”. (& They Did).

And this site can keep sticking their head in the sand while the rest of UGA’s fan base bring up Richt’s hot-seat (hence it being a subject the last 2 years on every UGA forum) after yet another disappointing, non-SECEast Title season

I am still hung up on the Pat Dye thing. i can’t help it, I think pat is taking over.. NOW I AM TAKING OVER, YOU CHICKEN CRAP WEASEL! VIOUS!! YOU CANDYASSED LITTLE WIMP. YOU AIN’T MAN ENOUGH TO BE A DAWG FAN!!!SHUT THE HELL UP BEFORE I PUT THIS #12 WHERE THE SUN DON’T SHINE!! please, someone help me—–SHUT UP BOY, RUN THEM DAMN LAPS BEFORE I KICK ‘YO ASS UP BETWIXT ‘YO EARS!

Quote Of The Day

“But outside of that, the biggest advantage you can have is have good leadership, have a veteran football team, and when you’ve got that, it doesn’t matter whether you have spring practice or not. When you don’t have that, it’s tougher, when you don’t have leadership and you don’t have the experience at certain positions.”— Kirby Smart, Dawgs247, 3/31/20